This invention relates to a method and apparatus for taking away a plurality of glass plates, which are stood on a pallet in a parallel arrangement, one after another while removing spacers used to space adjacent glass plates in their upper marginal areas, and to the construction of the aforementioned spacers.
For storage or transportation of glass plates it is often customary to stand a plurality of glass plates in a parallel arrangement on a pallet having an upright backstay. The base of the pallet is provided with fixed spacers in order to stand the glass plates at short intervals, and the glass plates are slightly leaned against the backstay of the pallet or a stopper protruding from the backstay. To prevent every glass plate from making contact with the adjacent glass plates it is usual to insert relatively small and detachable spacers between the glass plates in areas near the upper edge of every glass plate. Usually the detachable spacers have a partitioning plate part and a head part which is thicker than the partitioning plate part and hence can rest on the upper edges of the spaced two glass plates. For example, JP 61-3823 (Utility Model) shows a spacer of this form.
When the glass plates standing on the pallet are to be carried away one after another, the aforementioned detachable spacers must be removed one by one. The spacers can be removed by manual operation, but the manual operation entails high cost.
JP 2-26855 (Utility Model) proposes to suspend a plurality of rubber spacers in the shape of a flat plate from a belt of cloth by using a pair of wires or ropes for each spacer. According to this proposal, when the spaced glass plates on a pallet are taken away one after another the spacers can be automatically removed by pulling the aforementioned belt by a wire which is wound on a roller mounted on the backstay of the pallet. However, for this method it is necessary to mount a pair of rollers on the backstay of every pallet, and therefore it becomes impossible to stack a plurality of pallets on top of another.
Recently it has become customary to use a robot to take away glass plates standing on a pallet one after another. In most cases an attachment having a plurality of suction pads is attached to a robot arm as shown, for example, in JP 2-225225 A. When such a robot is used it is desirable that the spacers intervening near the upper edge of each glass plate can easily be removed by the robot. Actually, however, very intricate means are needed for automatically removing the conventional spacers by a robot.